Out of Sight, Into Heart

Spend just 30 seconds imagining trying to change terminals at LAX with 12 large suitcases, 4 carry-ons, 2 young children and you will have no lack of motivation to pray for Seth and Jessica Howell today. However, by the time you read this they will likely be in the air on their nine-hour flight to Lima. I’m tired just thinking about it.

After two years of raising support, the Howells are now fully funded and heading to the field. We prayed over the family in each of the worship services last weekend. But it struck me as I prayed that now comes the hard part: Supporting them well when we cannot see them anymore. The natural tendency with anything is out of sight, out of mind. As a pastor, connecting with all the people that gather for worship in each of three weekend services is challenging. But noticing those who did not come is far more difficult. The same is true with missionaries.

Another challenge is relational bandwidth. Truly supporting a missionary involves not just contributing money, but reading their blog posts, praying for needs and celebrating victories. This takes time and heart. How many missionaries can you truly support? It is the rare individual who can do so for all 16 of Evergreen’s missionaries. My vision is for our Evergreen members to choose a few and really support them well.

Once the heart is engaged, the means of support are wonderfully easy. For EBC missionaries, a link to each missionary’s most recent prayer letter is always included in this weekly update (just below). They are thrilled to receive personal notes via their blog or e-mail, and snail mail still communicates love better than anything electronic. And with the Howells, how fun to think that a note sent right now would zip past their airplane and be waiting for them when they arrive. What a blessing that would be.